Tears of the Mother
by Tinya
Summary: Motherhood brings revelations for Leia Organa Solo.


Working Titles: Tears of the Mother.  
  
Leia Organa Solo sighed as she slowly unwound the complex braid that curled around her head like a mahogany circlet. A Princess without a kingdom, her hair was a woven diadem. Once a subtle gesture of defiance against the Empire that destroyed her home, it remained as a quiet reminder of the cost of freedom. Long deft fingers combed through the brown waves of hair until it hung in a shining mass to her waist, the ends just brushing the soft material of the rounded couch. Arched brows rose over deep brown eyes rimmed with tired circles that seemed to see across the years. Slight lines touched her forehead and danced around her mouth, marring the perfect calm of the slight chin that jutted forward in a determined clench cultivated through triumph and tragedy. But behind the courage she was still in many ways the young girl who stood on the cold metal deck of the first Death Star as her world spun into glowing fragments in the cold darkness of space.   
A soft whimper caught her ear and echoed in her being. Leia heard herself weakly calling Threepio before she remembered that the golden droid and the ever present Noghri had just left to take her infant son on a walk around the Imperial Palace. No, the New Republic Complex, she reminded herself. The soft folds of her lavender robe swirled around her as she planted firm palms on the couch and rose. A long burgundy over-tunic lay over her shoulders and flowed softly with her footsteps across the gray carpet.  
The door hissed open with a soft touch to a lighted pad and Leia could see the soft glow of the monitoring devices Mon Mothma had insisted on installing after the twins were born, as she heard the cry again from the rounded double crib on her right. She sensed her daughter's infant presence react to her own. Reaching down, she lifted Jania Solo out of the crib, wrapping her in a soft white blanket before settling into a nearby cushioned chair. Shaped like an egg, it hovered at just the right height for rocking a small child as Leia brushed a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.  
Darth Vader's granddaughter hiccuped wetly and contentedly into her mother's sleeve. Warm brown eyes looked down into the deep blue of the newly born. Leia nestled her cheek on the curly brown down of her daughter's head. She breathed deeply, inhaling the soft, sweet smell of her newborn child and sighed, closing her eyes.  
  
When she opened them the world was a blur of motion.   
  
Leia felt a queer lurch like the feeling one has in a familiar nightmare just before entering a darkened doorway. She could still smell the clean-sweet smell of childhood, now mixed with apprehension as she floated around the scene before her, seeing it from every and no angle. The nascent Jedi strained, but she could only catch glimpses of her surroundings, seemingly out of the corner of her eyes. With no warning, her view was filled, as a figure, small but quick in a rough brown cloak ran towards her from the dim edge of reality. A peaked hood obscured the face, but Leia could tell from the form that it was a woman who ran with sure steps across the shining coral stone of the floor. The cloak swirled around the figure as she ran, her shoulders slightly bent from a weight in her arms. Leia could just make out a bundled shawl, threadbare, the off-white of much used cloth, clutched in the slim arms.   
To the left was a large wall of windows, tall panes that stretched to the ceiling in neat squares bordered with crisp molding, flanked by tall white-grey stone pillars and deep statuary niches with complex shapes. The former Rebel leader glanced at the woman, who had stilled in intense concentration, even her cloak seemingly carved in unmoving brown stone for a moment before the woman slipped into a narrow crevice behind a pillar with the effortless efficiency of experience. The odd, cool click of boots on stone reached Leia's ears then, and she flinched in recognition. The sounds grew louder and Leia felt her stomach turn at the familiar sounds of a party of stormtroopers approaching in the haze.  
As a civilian who obviously felt she had some reason to hide, Leia knew only too well what fate awaited the slight fugitive at the Empire's hands, and something deep inside her shivered. Or perhaps not so helpless, she thought as the Imperial troops came into view. Leia saw a slight gleam near the woman?s right hand just before the woman pulled a short metallic pistol from beneath her cloak, raising a pale arm so that the pistol stood upright at her shoulder. It was smooth, with a rounded barrel and a tapered brown handle. Unlike any small arms Leia had ever seen before, it resembled a glittering toy more than a functional weapon to the veteran of Hoth and Endor. The echo of the stormtroopers' passing faded into the distance, and Leia saw the figure's shoulders relax ever so slightly. Then the sound of rustling fabric, and both Leia and the woman looked up in time to see a regal form striding down the hallway in the opposite direction.  
Tall and erect, the man was dressed in a high necked dark blue gown ribbed with darker shades and embroidered with gold accents. His hair was a glossy black, slicked back and accented with a neat goatee. He did not yet sport the somber gray waves that Leia remembered from their final communications but he was still heart-stoppingly recognizable.   
Walking with the easy confidence of a man in the prime of his life, Bail Organa exuded competence. First a Senator and Head of the ruling house of Antilles, he became the First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan during the Clone Wars, and led his people through the treacherous mire of the fledgling Empire. But perhaps most importantly to Leia, he held the title of "father." The Princess of Alderaan choked as she saw the man who had tucked her in at night as a child with stories of the glory of the Old Republic. She bit back a cry of recognition at seeing the man who had raised her to be a true leader, seen her take his place in the Imperial Senate, and had honored his daughter's decision to join him in leading the Alliance to Restore the Republic.   
  
A clear, crisply accented voice said simply, "Organa," and Leia felt a twinge of annoyance that anyone would refer to the Viceroy of Alderaan with such assured informality.  
  
Bail Organa stopped short as he saw the figure step from the recesses of the statuary, his eyes widening with shock and then relief. "We had almost lost hope," he said, his voice a taut yet smooth baritone.  
  
"I..we had to take a detour...a long one. I had to ensure we left no traces for ..for the Empire to find," she said, her hood moving to show a glimpse of dark brown hair as she shifted the bundle in her arms. Leia only half heard the words, still entranced by the vision of her long-dead parent.  
  
With the swift understanding that characterized his diplomatic style, Bail Organa nodded, his hands opening conciliatorily. "No. No explanations needed. The less I know the less I could be forced to tell later."  
  
"Surely you would be immune, the Republic's anti-..,"the hooded woman began.  
  
"The Republic doesn?t exist anymore," he replied, his voice sharp with suppressed anger.  
  
"I know. I was there. Or had you forgotten?," she snaped back.  
  
"No! But..," Bail Organa bit back his reply, then sighed, staring at the floor for a moment. "I apologize. But you must see that things have become much worse. I know what we're asking of you.....," Bail began.  
  
There was no reply for a moment, and then the woman reached back with one long pale hand and pulled back her hood. Bail Organa stood speechless and silent in self-reproach and sympathy at the towering passions flowing like rapids over the planes of the woman's features. Her hair was loose, flowing over her shoulders in a torrent of dark brown waves. Tendrils fought with gravity and whirled about her head as if unused to such freedom. "With all due respect, I disagree," she said, her eyes alight.   
  
Leia's mind reeled.  
  
That face..Leia could feel it swimming up from the depths of her memories. The beautiful oval face, the arched brows and quiet dignity held in an ancient youthfulness. Those deep brown eyes..so sad, so beautiful, so familiar. She had seen those eyes look at her out of so many mirrors and she had never realized, never knew that she had her mother's eyes. Her mother's eyes. Her mother.   
  
Leia's grip on the threads of the tapestry of reality slipped slightly, and she felt herself spinning out of control as her mother unwrapped the bundle in her arms to reveal a head of soft brown curls. She felt her mother whisper something as she kissed the child's- *her* forehead, then watched, powerless, as her mother gently placed her infant-self in Bail Organa's arms before she slipped back into the shadows, dwarfed by the enormous window panes in the last moments of the dying day.   
  
Her mother stood, painfully erect, but head bowed, staring down into the darkening courtyard below. Fading sunlight glinted off the tears that ran unhindered down her cheeks. Leia watched, a silent witness, as her mother cried into the gathering darkness. She felt the cool ripple of tears gathering at the corners of her own eyes. In the distance Leia could heard a cry, the half-stifled breaths that heralded infant sobs. Hot tears rolled in rhythm with the cries as they crescendoed into heart-breaking wails of loss.  
  
Leia blinked, her eyelashes wet as she yanked fully upright. Jania Solo lay squinting and howling and in the crook of her arm. Princess Leia Organa Solo held her daughter closer, her long brown hair falling over the tiny form as the baby's head became damp with tears.  
  
__________________________  
  
" Through the Force, things you will see. Other places. The future...the past. Old friends long gone."  
-Yoda, during the Conflict on Bespin.  
  
" Luke: 'Leia... do you remember your mother? Your real mother?'  
Leia: Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.   
Luke:What do you remember?  
Leia: Just...images, really. Feelings.   
Luke:Tell me.   
Leia: (a little surprised at his insistence) She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad."  
-Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa just before the Battle of Endor.  
.....  
Author's notes: "Tears of the Mother" can be read alone or as a sequel of sorts to "Promises to Keep." "Tears"' main action may take place on either Alderaan or Naboo. I made it intentionally vauge so the reader can fill in the blanks as they wish, and also because we don't yet know the details of Episode III. Easter Eggs: Cameos by Leia's dress from Bespin, a mention of the events of "Last Command," Bail Organa's senate-wear, Padme's shawl and gun from Ep II and a nod to Padme's grief over her people's entrapment in Episode I.   
Why I didn't mention Padme's name in the story? There is some EU evidence ("Black Fleet Crisis") that Luke does not know of his mother as of post-Thrawn trilogy, so I assume Leia does not either. Though "Tatooine Ghost" (March 2003 from DelRay Books) will detail Leia and Han's discovery of Anakin's life on Tatooine just after the events of Endor (thus explaining why they name their second son after his grandfather), there has been no word on when similar information will be revealed to our heroes about their mother. 


End file.
